Airfield Operations Specialists
Ensure the safe takeoff and landing of commercial and military aircraft. Duties include coordination between air-traffic control and maintenance personnel, dispatching, using airfield landing and navigational aids, implementing airfield safety procedures, monitoring and maintaining flight records, and applying knowledge of weather information.
A wage reference for United States.
Published wage percentiles describe a distribution within the source occupation group. They provide context for a career decision; employer packages and job offers have their own terms.
This wage group may include multiple detailed occupations. The figures are for the source group, which may be broader than Airfield Operations Specialists. They are not an exact-title, employer, experience or seniority match.
May 2025 · USD · United States. Annual and hourly figures are shown only when the source publishes them; neither is calculated from the other.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational wage data, distributed through the O*NET® OnLine service.
Annual wage thresholds
USD per year
Hourly wage thresholds
USD per hour
| Percentile | Annual wage (USD/year) | Hourly wage (USD/hour) |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | $35,870 | $17.25 |
| 25th | $42,000 | $20.19 |
| 50th · Median | $56,850 | $27.33 |
| 75th | $77,340 | $37.18 |
| 90th | $102,120 | $49.10 |
“≥” means at least the published amount; “≤” means at most that amount. These are bounds, not exact values. “Not published” means the source did not provide that figure. Occupational wages follow the source definition and do not establish an employer’s base salary, equity or total compensation.
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What this career involves.
Occupation definitions describe common work. Responsibilities and requirements vary by employer and specific job.
Selected title examples
Expand more title examples (16)
Typical tasks
- Inspect airfield conditions to ensure compliance with federal regulatory requirements.
- Implement airfield safety procedures to ensure a safe operating environment for personnel and aircraft operation.
- Conduct inspections of the airport property and perimeter to maintain controlled access to airfields.
- Assist in responding to aircraft and medical emergencies.
- Initiate or conduct airport-wide coordination of snow removal on runways and taxiways.
- Manage wildlife on and around airport grounds.
Expand more tasks (21)
- Coordinate communications between air traffic control and maintenance personnel.
- Perform and supervise airfield management activities, including mobile airfield management functions.
- Plan and coordinate airfield construction.
- Monitor the arrival, parking, refueling, loading, and departure of all aircraft.
- Train operations staff.
- Coordinate with agencies, such as air traffic control, civil engineers, or command posts, to ensure support of airfield management activities.
- Relay departure, arrival, delay, aircraft and airfield status, and other pertinent information to upline controlling agencies.
- Provide aircrews with information and services needed for airfield management and flight planning.
- Coordinate with agencies to meet aircrew requirements for billeting, messing, refueling, ground transportation, and transient aircraft maintenance.
- Use airfield landing and navigational aids and digital data terminal communications equipment to perform duties.
- Receive, transmit, and control message traffic.
- Maintain air-to-ground and point-to-point radio contact with aircraft commanders.
- Procure, produce, and provide information on the safe operation of aircraft, such as flight planning publications, operations publications, charts and maps, or weather information.
- Anticipate aircraft equipment needs for air evacuation and cargo flights.
- Post visual display boards and status boards.
- Receive and post weather information and flight plan data, such as air routes or arrival and departure times.
- Conduct departure and arrival briefings.
- Collaborate with others to plan flight schedules and air crew assignments.
- Maintain flight and event logs, air crew flying records, and flight operations records of incoming and outgoing flights.
- Coordinate changes to flight itineraries with appropriate Air Traffic Control (ATC) agencies.
- Check military flight plans with civilian agencies.
Skills used in this work
- Active Listening
- Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Monitoring
- Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Coordination
- Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Critical Thinking
- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions, or approaches to problems.
- Reading Comprehension
- Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
- Speaking
- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
Expand more skills (29)
- Complex Problem Solving
- Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Writing
- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Active Learning
- Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Instructing
- Teaching others how to do something.
- Judgment and Decision Making
- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Social Perceptiveness
- Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Systems Analysis
- Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Systems Evaluation
- Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Time Management
- Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Learning Strategies
- Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or other indicators to make sure a machine is working properly.
- Service Orientation
- Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Management of Personnel Resources
- Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Negotiation
- Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Operation and Control
- Controlling operations of equipment or systems.
- Persuasion
- Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Operations Analysis
- Analyzing needs and product requirements to create a design.
- Quality Control Analysis
- Conducting tests and inspections of products, services, or processes to evaluate quality or performance.
- Mathematics
- Using mathematics to solve problems.
- Management of Material Resources
- Obtaining and seeing to the appropriate use of equipment, facilities, and materials needed to do certain work.
- Technology Design
- Generating or adapting equipment and technology to serve user needs.
- Management of Financial Resources
- Determining how money will be spent to get the work done, and accounting for these expenditures.
- Science
- Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems.
- Troubleshooting
- Determining causes of operating errors and deciding what to do about it.
- Programming
- Writing computer programs for various purposes.
- Equipment Selection
- Determining the kind of tools and equipment needed to do a job.
- Equipment Maintenance
- Performing routine maintenance on equipment and determining when and what kind of maintenance is needed.
- Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or programs to meet specifications.
- Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the needed tools.
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